I did not grow up Presbyterian, and I can’t identify as a ‘cradle’ or ‘prenatal’ Presbyterian, or any of the ways that
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On November 20, 2019, the Presbytery of Hudson River formally transferred the title of the former Stony Point Presbyterian church and associated property to the Sweetwater Cultural Center, a newly formed organization dedicated “to promote the education, health and welfare
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When I heard the reports and then saw the video of Eric Garner’s arrest, something deep inside me clicked. I’ve been involved in interreligious social justice movements for more than 25 years and thought that nothing could surprise me. However, in those moments I didn’t just see the injustice of
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It was in August of 2013 that I traveled to New York City with the Faith and Politics Institute (FPI) and a group of Congressional Representatives on what was described as “Becoming America”: a pilgrimage to celebrate the immigrant story and the role immigrants played in the creation of the
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Watching the PC(USA)’s Task Force to Review and Help Reform Drug Policy in the United States Months earlier, the process had already begun. Members of a task force appointed by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America had convened twice,
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Reflections on Unity, Reconciliation and Justice This useful companion to the Belhar Confession, published by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, weaves together Scripture passages and the Confession’s timely themes of unity, reconciliation and justice. Written by a diverse collection of scholars, theologians and church leaders, it is the perfect resource for
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A Season Yet to Come Summer is coming…and still we are not saved. Two scripture lessons frame what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church today: Psalm 104:27-34, 35b and John 20:19-23. First there’s Psalm 104, a psalm which is subtitled ‘A Hymn to God the Creator’. It begins
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A Closing Editorial Race is a word that points to massive dividing lines in the US (and elsewhere). Lake Woebegone is a fictional creation of a gifted radio storyteller, Garrison Keillor. Among Keillor’s strengths are his knowledge of the mainline church in small towns and his genuine affection for the
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Dog-Whistling and Sin-Talk It happened most recently on a family trip to a museum. This trip was particularly special because the museum had recently accepted my wife’s fiber art piece into one of its shows. I sat outside the gallery on a balcony that overlooked the small theater that was
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Interview with Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons As part of the finale to our discussion on race, white privilege, and the church, Rev. Molly Casteel – Assistant Stated Clerk and Manager for Representation, Inclusiveness, and Ruling Elder Training – sat down with Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Gradye Parsons
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Participation of Reformed Churches and Clergy in Demonstrations in Ferguson This essay is an excerpt from Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty’s contribution to Calvinism on the Peripheries: Religion and Civil Society in Europe, ed. by Ábrahám KOVÁCS, co-edited by Béla BARÁTH (Budapest: L’Harmattan, 2009), 295 pp. The events that have unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri,
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Antiracism Conversations at the Congregational and Denominational Levels I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot
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